Online November 2012

Cost cutting

It’s panel review season for the nation’s housebuilders, it seems. First up is Taylor Wimpey, which slashed its roster of external firms from 13 to six in a recent revamp. DAC Beachcroft, Eversheds, Gateley, Osborne Clarke, SNR Denton and Wragge & Co have all won spots on the slimmed-down panel, which will be in place […]

Istanbul set to become international arbitration centre

Establishment of a globally renowned arbitration centre in Istanbul has long been discussed. There is concern over the lack of such an institution despite the increasing use of arbitration as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism in Turkey. The idea of establishing an international arbitration centre in Istanbul was first officially mooted in the Strategy and […]

Firms on tenterhooks over Lloyds panel revamp

Lloyds Banking Group has delayed the review of its customer-pay panel, with law firms left in the dark over the timescale for the process. The lender’s in-house team is now expecting to send out submission bundles to firms this March after advisers had previously been told the process would kick off in January. Even the […]

London

New-look Dentons to go live on 28 March – and 2 April

Salans, SNR Denton and Canada’s Fraser Milner Casgrain (FMC) have confirmed 28 March as the launch date for their triple merger. The firms will come under the Dentons banner at that point after the trio had previously stated their intention to combine in the first quarter of 2013. The merger was approved in a partner […]

Tech Media
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Edwards Wildman City team leads for tech startup on $5m funding round

Edwards Wildman’s London office and US firm Carr & Ferrell have won roles advising as technology startup Swoop kicks off a process to raise $5m (£3.1m). The Cambridge, Massachusetts company has raised $3m (£1.9m) in equity out of the $5m it aims to gather. The service, which embeds relevant coupons and adverts into food websites, […]

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Belfast’s Johns Elliot defeated as sex offender wins case against Facebook

Belfast-based Johns Elliot has lost a High Court order for Facebook as the social networking site is given 72 hours to remove a Facebook page that identifies pedophiles in Northern Ireland. The order comes after a convicted sex offender, known only as XY, issued proceedings against Facebook after finding his photo and threatening comments on […]

Baker Botts promotes London duo ahead of Rio opening

US firm Baker Botts has promoted two global projects lawyers in London as part of a 15-strong promotions round, with at least one of the City associates expected to help staff the firm’s anticipated Brazilian office. Although the exact date of launch is yet to be announced, the firm confirmed plans to open an office […]

Charles Moore, Rocket Lawyer

Google-backed Rocket Lawyer launches in UK amid public spat with rival

Google-backed online legal services site Rocket Lawyer has launched in the UK days after US rival LegalZoom sued the site for its use of the word ‘free’. LegalZoom, which is to launch in the UK later this year via an alliance with high street franchise QualitySolicitors (20 September 2012), filed a 14-page suit in California […]

Bakers expected to win spot on new-look EDF panel

EDF Energy is set to appoint a raft of firms including Baker & McKenzie, Eversheds and Herbert Smith Freehills to a revamped legal panel expected to be finalised in the coming weeks. Squire Sanders and Bristol’s TLT are also on course to be appointed to the roster, with Bakers the only one of the firms […]

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Halliwells mediation put on hold after eight months of deliberations

Mediation between former Halliwells partners and the failed firm’s liquidators has been adjourned after proceedings kicked off in April this year. Attempts to reach an agreement between 32 ex-partners and liquidators Dermot Power and Shay Bannon at BDO have been going on since spring at the London offices of Addleshaw Goddard (23 April 2012). A […]

Desmond Browne QC

RPC and Taylor Hampton lock horns over Mirror phone-hacking claims

Trinity Mirror has instructed RPC partner Keith Mathieson and 5RB media silk Desmond Browne QC to defend claims of phone hacking. In-house lawyers led by Marcus Partington, group legal director at Trinity Mirror Group, publishers of The Mirror, Sunday Mirror and The People, are conducting an internal investigation into claims brought by Taylor Hampton consultant […]

Martin Arnold

Martin Arnold elected as managing partner for post-merger Wedlake Bell

Wedlake Bell senior partner Martin Arnold has been elected managing partner for a four-year term in the wake of the firm’s April merger with Cumberland Ellis. Arnold, who joined Wedlake Bell as a trainee in 1987 and has been a partner at the firm since 1996, was instrumental in the firm’s tie-up with Cumberland Ellis […]